Works for Viola

The viola is my instrument. I have been playing it since the age of 13. The fact that I only have a few works that feature the viola is due to the vicissitudes of the commissioning process. Some of my earliest works include the viola; this was a blatant attempt to give myself some professional performance work in the early seventies! The works that are listed below make good and sometimes challenging demands on the instrument. Please see as well the appropriate pages for works for String Quartet, String Quintet, Piano Trio and Piano Quintet.

8. Traditional Music, Op. 57 (1998) This is my major work to date for viola. Traditional Musicis scored for solo viola and string quartet and was commissioned for Rivka Golani and the Atlantic String Quartet. It pays homage to the four periods of the "classical" traditional music: baroque, classical, romantic and modern. It is a virtuoso piece in which all four members of the quartet have candenzas with the solo viola.

7a. Six Lowly Variations on the Flying Dutchman (In Canada), Op. 54b (incomplete) This work is an arrangement for Violin and Viola of my work Six Lowly Variations on the Flying Dutchman (In Canada), Op. 54. It consists of a set of variations on Wagner's overture to The Flying Dutchman. The work has not been complete yet; I hope to do so in the near future.

7. Six Lowly Variations on the Flying Dutchman (In Canada), Op. 54a (incomplete) This work is an arrangement for Viola and Violoncello of my work Six Lowly Variations on the Flying Dutchman (In Canada), Op. 54. It consists of a set of variations on Wagner's overture to The Flying Dutchman. The work has not been complete yet; I hope to do so in the near future.

6. Ode, Op. 31 (1984) This is a short (2 minute) setting of the last verse of the Ode to Newfoundland,scored for Soprano, Flute, Horn, Viola and Cello. It is certainly not a tradition setting in any sense of the word, but reflects a rather wild and dark view of the words. I later scored it for woodwing quintet (Ode for Winds, Op. 31a).

5. Shanadithit, Op. 29 (1983) This work was commissioned by the Victoria International Festival in 1983, a year that celebrated the arrival of Sir Humphrey Gilbert to Newfoundland in 1583. Even though the work was to be premiered as far away from Newfoundland as possible and still be in Canada, I decided to focus on a Newfoundland theme and to create a work based on the tragic extinction of the Beothucks, the aboriginal inhabitants of Newfoundland. Shanadithit was the last of the Beothucks and the work describes and pays tribute to her life and death. It is scored for string trio, woodwind quintet, piano (harpsichord), and percussion. It has been performed many times and usually creates quite a stir!

4. Blomidon, Op. 23 (1978) Blomidon, scored for Flute, Trombone, Viola, Violoncello, Piano and Percussion, takes its title from the Blomidon mountain range just outside Corner Brook, Newfoundland. It is quite a descriptive work. A television broadcast of the piece was matched with actual photos of the mountains and it all worked very well.

3. Five Songs, Op. 15 (1974) These songs to an original text are scored for Soprano, Guitar, Viola and Clarinet. They are very sparse in texture and very dark.

2. Olympians XIV, Op. 14 (1973) Olympians XIV is a setting of the 14th Olympian ode by the classical Greek poet Pindar. While it explores the complex rhythms of the original Greek text, it is also rooted in my version of traditional Greek folk music.

1. Remembrances, Op. 13 (1972) Remembrances is my first composition and is scored for Soprano, Viola, Cello and Percussion. It is clearly a juvenile work but does contant some of the early trends that I would explore and develop over the years.